Early- to mid-June is raspberry season in Michigan. Everyone knows that.

But I didn’t know that blackberries ripen in late July. And there they were. Smaller than the kind you usually buy in the store, and not quite as sweet. Finding a bush full of free ones, though, was all right.

My grandmother’s house growing up had one of every kind of berry: red, white, and black raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and grapes. Diving into the pricker bushes was so worth it, just to get at those suckers.